My Dad Makes Lucky Pouches That Turn Spineless Men Into Alphas—Then I Learned They Were for Their Wives!

My dad was a fisherman, and he specialized in catching fish to make fish sacs. The fish sacs themselves had no real medicinal value. They were made specifically to sell to men who wanted to boost their performance. As long as you wore one of the fish sacs my dad made, even the most useless man could stand tall again. It was only later that I learned there was no such thing as a fish sac that could restore a man’s glory. They were all really the wives of men who had cheated. ... My dad was the most famous fisherman in the village. He didn’t fish to eat. He fished to make fish sacs. One fish sac could sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. But my dad never made them casually. If you wanted to buy one of his fish sacs, you had to meet two conditions. First, no kids. Second, weak performance. I was in the yard gutting fish for my dad when a timid man who didn’t even dare to look up suddenly came to our house. I knew him. He had come a few days ago to ask my dad to make a fish sac for him. But when he came, he had brought a beautiful woman and a proud-looking man with him, and when he left, he was alone, holding a long object wrapped in red cloth in his arms. I figured it must be the fish sac my dad had made. “Kid, go call your dad for me. Tell him Eli is here to pick up the fish oil and get the fish sac fitted.” “No need. I saw you from far away. Did you bring the fish sac?” Before I could say anything, my dad’s tall figure came out of the inner room. Eli quickly pulled the long object from his arms like he was offering up a treasure, and without thinking, he was about to open it and hand it to my dad. My dad roared and rushed over in fury, slapping the man across the face. “Are you trying to get me killed? I warned you. Once the fish sac is finished, no one but you is allowed to look at it!” Eli hurriedly dropped to his knees and apologized to my dad, and then promised over and over that he would pay more. Only then did my dad’s face finally look a little better. “Come with me. If we don’t fit it now, it’ll lose its vitality.” As soon as Eli heard that, he followed my dad into the inner room, nervous and excited at the same time. I had lost all interest in gutting fish. After thinking it over, I kept replaying what my dad had said in my head. I had never seen the fish sacs my dad made, not even the semi-finished ones. He never let me look at them, always saying I shouldn’t rush, because I would have a fish sac of my own someday too. I didn’t care before, because I thought I had no issues at all. But one year ago, when I was with my girlfriend in bed, I realized I was wrong. I did have a problem. A big one. I pressed my ear against the wall and secretly listened to their conversation. But strangely enough, what I heard was a woman’s voice. That sound was just like the noises my girlfriend made when we were together. But there wasn’t even a woman in there! The strange noises grew faster and faster, and only then did I vaguely hear Eli’s voice. The sounds went on for half an hour before they finally stopped. Then I heard my dad say, “It’s fitted. Is the size right? Does it feel too tight?” Eli’s voice came in bursts, as if he was holding something back, but he still sounded full of energy. “Brother Sun, your craftsmanship is amazing!” They were coming out. My face turned red, and I hurried back to pretending to gut fish. When my dad and Eli came out, they glanced at me. Eli seemed to know I had been eavesdropping, and gave me a sly, greasy smile. But when I saw him, I was stunned. Was this still the hunched, weak-looking Eli from just now? Had he always been this tall? Eli came over, patted my head, and asked my dad, “Your kid’s old enough now. This craft can’t be passed down and left to die, right?” My dad snorted, sounding a little impatient. “He’s still too young. He doesn’t even have a girlfriend yet. He helps me gut fish every day. Besides, maybe there’s nothing wrong with his body. He doesn’t need to learn this!” Eli didn’t say anything. This was a family matter, so he just said he’d send the money over later and left. The second he was gone, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I grabbed my dad and said, “Dad, I actually already have a girlfriend. I... I have a problem.” My dad’s usual angry expression vanished all at once. He looked shocked, and kept muttering, “How could it be this early? Is this really the curse of the Sun family?” Then he stared at me with an unreadable expression for a long time, leaving me with goosebumps. “You... sigh...” “Is it the girl from the next village, Emma? I warned you. Emma is not a good woman. She has no shame, she’s loose, and back then when she got into college, you weren’t the one who heard those rumors. Who else would you go after? Of all people, why her...” “Dad! What are you talking about? You believe those rumors about her sleeping her way into college? Emma got in on her own ability.” “Emma is a good woman. I know her!” I argued back firmly and cut my dad off hard for the first time, arguing with him until my face turned red. My dad waved a hand and let out a defeated sigh. “Fine. It’s all fate. Bring her here. Have her come eat at home. If she passes my test, then I’ll pass this craft on to you and let you become a real man.” I was so excited I rushed out at once to call Emma over.Emma was different from me. She was a college student from the next village, and she had worked her way out of our mountain village. She only came back during holidays. But her family was poor and couldn’t afford tuition or living expenses. We had grown up together, and I had been secretly giving her money all along. Things had gone naturally between us, so by rights, we should have ended up together. When I found her, she was on the phone. I suddenly jumped out from the side and scared her. She quickly turned off the phone I had bought for her, hung up, and pouted at me. “What are you doing, Noah? You scared me!” Happily, I told her that my dad was going to pass the craft down to me. I told her I was about to make a fortune. One fish sac could bring in hundreds of thousands. If I made a few, it wouldn’t be long before I was financially free and could buy her a nice house and a nice car. Emma’s eyes lit up. She didn’t know my family was this rich, or that making fish sacs could be this profitable. She even told me dreamily that if we had money, we should move into the city and bring her parents and younger brother there to live too. When I brought Emma home, my dad had already cooked a full table of good dishes. When Emma saw my dad, her eyes lit up at once. She licked her lips and pinched my arm hard. “Noah, you never said your dad looked this young, or this manly!” Of course I knew what she meant. My pride was stung, and I said sharply in her ear, “Once I learn how to make fish sacs, I’ll be manly too.” Emma nodded without really understanding, but her eyes still kept drifting back to my dad. My dad frowned. “Emma, sit down. Just call me Uncle Sun.” Emma sat down cheerfully. It was a round table, but she sat very close to my dad. Then Eli suddenly came back. After straightening up, he looked tall and handsome, with those bulging muscles of his. I clearly heard Emma’s breathing grow heavier. Eli walked over to Emma and asked my dad, “Is this your son’s girlfriend?” As he spoke, he handed my dad a bank card. “Earlier I broke the rules, so I paid an extra fifty thousand. There’s three hundred thousand in here.” Emma stared at the card without saying a word. Only after my dad took the card did she finally let out a breath, looking almost disappointed. “Yes.” My dad glanced at Emma, sounding a little displeased. Eli said he was sorry for disturbing us and was about to leave. But then Emma suddenly stood up excitedly and stammered, “Wait, why don’t you stay and eat with us?” Now even I frowned. This was a family dinner. You’re the guest. What do you mean by inviting someone else to the table? Emma knew she had misspoken and quickly tried to fix it. “I just mean, we can eat together. That’s all. There’s no reason not to keep a guest at mealtime.” But Eli laughed when he heard that and said to my dad, “I see your son really is going to inherit your craft.” Then he walked over to Emma and, right in front of me, reached out and touched her. Emma said she hated it, but her body didn’t seem to resist him at all. I was furious. Was he trying to slap a green hat on me right in front of my face? I shot to my feet and was about to reason with him, but my dad stood up and blocked me. “Enough. Don’t overthink it. A man who’s been fitted with a fish sac will never love another woman in his life, and he can’t love another woman either.” I knew the rule, but this was going too far. My dad directly ordered Eli to leave first. But as Eli left, Emma wanted to go too. Fuming, I stood there coldly and watched them leave. My dad sighed. “This is fate. Come on, son, didn’t you always want to see Dad’s personal fish sac?” “Come to my room at nine tonight.”At nine that night, I walked into my father’s room on time with a dark face. Before I even reached the door, I suddenly heard a sound. That urgent, suppressed sound was coming from my father’s side. I froze in place, and the anger I had felt all day vanished under my doubt. What was my father doing? Through the half-open door, I saw my father holding a long object in his hands. It was cylindrical and completely white, and he held it up in front of him. From time to time, he also spoke to the long object in a gentle, coaxing voice. “Jenny, was I too rough?” Jenny was my mom’s nickname. Was my dad hallucinating? Was he treating that fish sac like it was my mom? I was stunned. When I looked again, it almost seemed like the fish sac was moving and shifting in my father’s hands, as if it were alive. It was downright eerie. I was just about to push the door open and look more clearly, but my father’s voice grew more intense, and that made me stop. I could clearly see that there was a round hole in the middle of the fish sac, like a fish’s mouth. After my father washed it with the clean water placed to the side, he put it into a special solution before motioning me inside. I took a deep breath, forced down the unease in my chest, and walked in. The moment I entered, I smelled a strong, mixed fishy stench that hit me straight in the face. I covered my nose and frowned at my father, saying the smell was so fishy and foul. My father didn’t answer me. He just got dressed, turned his back to me, and said to himself, “When you were little, you always said you wanted to see Dad’s fish sac. Now Dad will show you.” My father turned slightly, letting me see the full shape of the object soaking in the solution. The shape of my father’s fish sac was no different from a normal fish sac. The difference was that it seemed to be breathing like a fish. And when I looked at its jade-white material, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind: what kind of skin was this? My mouth suddenly went dry. That thought shocked me so much that I couldn’t help stepping forward to touch the fish sac. But my father grabbed my hand halfway and stopped me. “This is my fish sac. You can look, but you can’t touch.” I was a little disappointed, staring hard at the fish sac. For some reason, I felt a strange sense of closeness to it, and I wanted to touch it. My father seemed to know what I was thinking. He sighed, placed his hand on the fish sac, and said, “Sigh, I know. You miss the child too, Spring.” “Fine. He’s grown up now. You two should meet too.” Under my father’s approving gaze, I reached out and touched the fish sac carefully. I could clearly see that the moment my hand landed on it, the breathing hole in the fish sac grew more rapid, as if it were excited. But how could a fish sac have life? After I touched it enough and took my hand away, it suddenly trembled violently, as if it didn’t want me to leave. My father quickly pressed it down and said, “All right, you’ve seen the child now. He has the same problem as I do. He has issues in that area too, so he needs the fish sac to cure him.” “He even has a girlfriend now. She’s the girl from the next village, Lily. The fish sac my son makes will definitely be better than yours and mine.” “You won’t be alone for much longer. Maybe the two of you can even keep each other company and talk.” The more I heard, the more silent I became. Was there really any necessary connection between making fish sacs and having a girlfriend? Why did he keep stressing that? And this fish sac... hearing the way my dad referred to it, I kept feeling like it was my mom. My dad pointed at the basin of water and said to me, “Remember this, son. A fish sac is just like a fish. You can only take it out when you need to use it. The rest of the time, it has to soak in this fish oil, or it’ll dry out and turn brittle, and then you won’t be able to use it at all.” I pressed my lips together and gave a quiet mm. My dad walked over to an old leather suitcase and pulled out a worn, yellowed bamboo scroll. “All the special fish-sac-making techniques in our family are in this book. Starting today, it officially belongs to you too. Read it yourself.” I took it excitedly and flipped it open in a hurry, but the more I read, the tighter my brows pulled together, and my face went instantly pale with fear. In the end, I couldn’t take it anymore. I screamed and threw the bamboo scroll away, then bent over in the yard and vomited violently. Just thinking back on the words carved into the bamboo scroll and the little drawings pasted onto it made me feel sick to the core. How could a fish sac be something like this?